Your school undoubtedly enjoys supporting the programs and activities that your students love, and you should be able to continue to do so. But as an educator or member of the PTA, your time is limited. You have many tasks vying for your attention and it can be difficult to balance everything and still perform each task well.
School fundraising should not be another source of stress in your life. Fundraising for all of your kids and teens’ favorite programs can be fun and engaging for you, your students, and your community. However, to avoid becoming overwhelmed with stress as you organize the fundraiser, utilize an effective event fundraising software.
To cultivate a fundraiser that kids will want to participate in and promote, you should:
- Plan a fun event.
- Stay organized.
- Encourage personalization.
- Allow healthy competition.
- Offer incentives.
- Make it shareable.
If you follow these 6 best tips for school fundraising, you will be blasting through your fundraising goals in no time—and getting your kids involved in the fundraising process. So, without further ado, let’s start learning how to create the best and most engaging fundraiser your school has ever seen!
1. Plan a fun event.
The best way to guarantee your students actually want to get involved in your fundraiser is to make it fun and simple. It is entirely possible that the goal of raising money is not enough to get the students to engage with the fundraiser.
Depending on the age of the kids, they may not quite grasp the importance of money in making sure the programs you provide can still be offered year after year.
To ensure the students value the fundraiser, try planning your fundraiser around a fun event. To get some inspiration for fundraising ideas, click here.
A Fun Run or Jog-a-thon is an excellent example of a fun and easy event that’s well-suited for school-aged children.
The concept of a Fun Run or Jog-a-thon is simple. The student should recruit friends, adults, and family to pledge money for each unit of distance that they run or donate a lump sum for the entire distance. This could look like:
- Uncle Joe pledges $3 for every lap ran by Timmy S.
- Janet pledges $2 for every half mile ran by Ellie H.
- Charlie donates $50 to Louis’ Fun Run fund.
An effective walk-a-thon allows for the kids to hang out with their friends and stay active while supporting their school.
2. Stay organized.
One of the hardest parts of organizing and promoting a large-scale school fundraiser is making sure all of your data stays organized. You may be unfamiliar with fundraising techniques and strategies—and that’s completely normal!
To stay organized and properly manage the information you gather from your Fun Run or Jog-a-thon you should employ a Fun Run/Jog-a-thon fundraising software, like 99Pledges.
The best software will track and manage the pledges made to your Fun Run or Jog-a-thon so that you don’t have to! Yes, you heard that correctly. You will never have to sit with a calculator adding up the money that each pledgor owes to your child’s fundraising page.
This technology will allow you to load each child’s information into the program and create a custom-made, individualized fundraising page for supporters to donate or pledge money to.
If you want to get kids and teens involved invested in your fundraising efforts, you need to have an organized system that can easily integrate students into its process.
3. Encourage personalization.
While you are all fundraising for the same end result, your fundraiser participants may have many reasons for becoming involved. Some people might participate because they are passionate about the cause or the program that your event benefits. Meanwhile, others may want to compete for incentives or simply participate in your fun event.
Whatever the reason for their participation, you should encourage students to personalize their fundraising page to entice more supporters.
With the right software tool, each student will be able to fundraise separately for a common goal. While some fields on their unique page may be consistent throughout all the supporters, such as the:
- School name or program
- Description of the fundraiser
- Per participant goal
- Date of the fundraiser
The students or their parents should still have the option to write a fundraising letter that offers an impassioned appeal for donations and pledges that will be more likely to draw in friends and family supporters.
This fundraising letter should:
- Describe the fundraising event in their own words.
- Explain what the fundraiser benefits.
- Convey the student’s reason for participating.
- Provide donation information.
- Thank the supporter in advance.
It is not likely that friends and family members will donate or pledge money simply because it is a good cause. They want the emotional appeal—they want to donate and pledge money because it is something the student is passionate about.
Feel free to encourage your students to make this fundraiser their own. This will not only cause the students to become more invested in the outcome of the fundraiser, but it will also boost your fundraising revenue!
4. Allow healthy competition.
One of the benefits of your PTA hosting a participant-based fundraising event is that the work is divided up among a wide range of people. While we know it can be difficult to motivate such a wide group of kids, make sure you don’t underestimate the power of healthy competition.
Friendly competition among friends has the potential to greatly enhance your fundraising revenue and encourage students to work hard to gain supporters.
The students should be able to have some sort of visual that represents how much each student is fundraising. A good software tool will display top donations that can serve as motivation for students to seek out additional support for their pages.
If you choose to do a walk-a-thon, or any variation of the event-a-thon, it is easy for the students to see how hard their peers are working. The student may be more inclined to walk further or read more or hit more baseballs if they can see how well other participants are doing.
While good, old-fashioned competition is one of the best motivators in fundraising among kids and teens, you must remember to provide some incentives that will further encourage the students to put effort into the campaign.
5. Offer incentives.
If you want to modify your fundraising strategy to maximize the number of students who are meaningfully engaging with your fundraiser, you should offer incentives to participants. Kids and teens love free stuff and added perks— but then again, who doesn’t?
To make competition a sustainable motivator and to help students stay excited about your fundraiser, you must give them a light at the end of the tunnel. They need something to look forward to and something to latch onto as they fundraise.
Don’t worry. The incentives don’t need to be elaborate or expensive, just something that will appeal to the kids and teens participating in your fundraising event.
Potential incentives you may want to offer include:
- A pizza party for the classes with the highest participation rates.
- Giving a percentage of the total earnings to the class who raises the most money.
- Allowing the class to allocate the money they earn above their goal to a project of their own.
Depending on the age of your students, they may respond better to different incentives. Make sure you offer incentives that you know your students will love and want to achieve.
An easy way to incentivize all of your students at once is to provide fundraising team t-shirts. These can be custom made based on class, grade, or school depending on the size of your fundraiser. The kids will love the free merch and be excited to wear it, which will, in turn, promote the fundraiser.
To see how you can increase excitement in your fundraiser with a tangible incentive, check out Bonfire’s custom school shirts.
6. Make it shareable.
The best tactic to include in your fundraising plan when hosting a school fundraiser that kids and teens will want to be a part of is to make it shareable on social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and so many more social media platforms have taken over how people communicate with one another and share news that is important to them.
Depending on the age of your students they may have their own social media accounts or, at the very least, it is likely their parents have accounts. Enabling students to share the fundraiser with remote friends and family members and to engage with the fundraiser on their own terms will make it more likely that the students actually want to participate.
You will be able to reach more people and encourage the students to promote their own fundraising page if the event-a-thon software that you use allows mobile sharing of personalized pages, your students and their parents are sure to want to spread the word about the school fundraiser.
Your school fundraiser should be easy and fun for everyone involved—student, teachers, parents, and supporters alike! With the right software, your walk-a-thon or other exciting fundraising events can engage your students and increase your fundraising revenue.
This post was contributed by Brad Dowhaniuk.
Brad Dowhaniuk is the co-founder of 99Pledges, which provides schools and teams with an easy-to-use, web-based fundraising solution to manage and drive success in Fun Runs, jog-a-thons, baseball hit-a-thons, and much more.
360MatchPro by Double the Donation Joins the Ellucian Partner Community with Ethos Connectivity
/0 Comments/in Company Updates, Learning Center /by Hannah SilversAtlanta, GA (August 20, 2019) — As school year preparations begin, Double the Donation is proud to join Ellucian, the leading provider of software and services built to power higher education, in partnership to offer a new technical integration. The integration connects Ellucian CRM Advance with 360MatchPro by Double the Donation, the industry-leading matching gift automation tool for nonprofits and educational institutions.
Corporate matching gifts are an underutilized source of fundraising for institutions of higher education. Although 15-19 million individuals in the United States are eligible for matching gift programs, $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue goes unclaimed each year. The joint solution of 360MatchPro and CRM Advance addresses this gap in client potential to turn match eligibility into matched donations.
“When searching for a partner in the matching gift space, we knew that we needed an experienced company focused on technical innovation,” said Kim Coelho, Director of Product Management for the Advancement Solutions Portfolio at Ellucian. “Double the Donation brings a wealth of experience and a forward-thinking technological approach from the greater philanthropy world to our advancement solutions.”
When connected to CRM Advance, 360MatchPro automatically scans gift records for matching gift eligibility. The system then delivers the right forms and instructions to each donor, following up appropriately to drive matches to completion. Thanks to Ellucian Ethos integration, this powerful automation can be activated within minutes, allowing institutions to begin doubling their fundraising revenue instantly.
Since 360MatchPro handles this matching gift identification and follow-up automatically, gift officers and advancement offices can dedicate their valuable time to top opportunities instead of manual outreach.
“Time-saving automation is the key to the value of this joint solution,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “360MatchPro shoulders the burden of research, outreach, and reporting that our clients were doing manually. That leaves time for advanced reporting and targeting manual communications to top matching gift opportunities.”
Learn more about Double the Donation at https://doublethedonation.com/ or schedule a private demo of 360MatchPro at https://360matchpro.com/demo-request/.
To learn more about Ellucian and CRM advance, visit https://www.ellucian.com/solutions/ellucian-crm-advance.
OneCause Announces Double the Donation Matching Gifts Integration with Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Platform
/0 Comments/in Company Updates, Learning Center /by Hannah SilversAtlanta, GA (July 30, 2019) — Double the Donation is proud to bring OneCause, a leader in mobile and social fundraising, into the 360MatchPro partnership ecosystem with an integration to the OneCause Peer-to-Peer Fundraising solution.
With the combined power of the integration, nonprofits can activate and manage their matching gift efforts with ease without even leaving the OneCause Peer-to-Peer Fundraising platform.
“An essential feature of the new OneCause integration is the match forecast,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “With this integration, donors see the highlights of their match expectancy before they donate, which encourages them to take advantage of the matching gift process. Then, 360MatchPro delivers their forms and instructions right to their inbox.”
A match-eligible donor making a contribution through an integrated 360MatchPro-OneCause Peer-to-Peer Fundraising form will know before they even check out whether their gift is eligible to be matched. 360MatchPro’s signature streamlined employer search field prompts the donor to search for their company’s name, then automatically calculates and presents their match expectancy.
360MatchPro by Double the Donation estimates corporate match amount on OneCause peer-to-peer fundraising forms.
“We’re excited to partner with Double the Donation and provide our nonprofit customers a new way to raise additional funds with their peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns,” said Dan Gross, Senior Director of Partnerships for OneCause. “Together we’re committed to improving the giving experience for donors with a more seamless way to increase their impact with a corporate matching gift.”
The 360MatchPro integration tackles the most substantial obstacle standing between nonprofits and their potential matching gift revenue: donor awareness. Even though 15-19 million individuals in the United States are eligible employee matching gifts, $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue does unclaimed annually.
The integration already has traction with users of both Double the Donation and OneCause’s services. Susan G. Komen Greater New York City has implemented the 360MatchPro integration for Komen Greater NYC Race for the Cure, which launched earlier this year.
“We’re longtime 360MatchPro users, and when we made the move to OneCause Peer-to-Peer, we knew that 360MatchPro was the missing piece,” said Glen Peck, Senior Director of Digital Communications at Susan G. Komen Greater New York City. “We loved how fast the integration process was, and we were kept in the loop along the way.”
360MatchPro by Double the Donation can be activated from within the OneCause peer-to-peer fundraising platform.
Any organization accepting donations through OneCause Peer-to-Peer Fundraising can now activate the 360MatchPro integration and instantly begin doubling their contributions. Simply contact your Double the Donation or OneCause account representative for setup information— or, if you’re not already a 360MatchPro client, reach out at https://www.360matchpro.com/demo-request/ to get started.
Learn more about Double the Donation at https://doublethedonation.com/ or schedule a private demo of 360MatchPro at https://www.360matchpro.com/demo-request/.
Learn more about OneCause at https://www.onecause.com/.
Arreva Chooses Double the Donation for Integrated Matching Gifts Provider
/0 Comments/in Company Updates, Learning Center, Press Releases /by Adam WeingerAtlanta, GA (July 24, 2019) — Double the Donation is proud to announce a new strategic partnership with Arreva, trusted leader in fully integrated online fundraising and donor relationship management software.
Arreva clients may now activate matching gift functionality directly from Arreva’s fundraising software and include a streamlined matching gift search tool with the click of a button through 360MatchPro by Double the Donation, a robust, fully-automated matching gifts platform.
Following the transaction, donors will receive their matching gift next steps directly on the donation confirmation screen and in automated follow-up email messaging. This streamlined, frictionless experience ensures that donors take advantage of the matching gift programs for which they’re eligible, helping nonprofit organizations maximize their fundraising opportunities. 360MatchPro synthesizes all the organization’s matching gift data and presents actionable insights that can be used to even further enhance their matching gift efforts.
Donors can submit their matching gift request from the Arreva confirmation page. Note: Matching gift information abridged in image.
“We’re thrilled to bring yet another incredibly valuable integration to our clients through our fully integrated online fundraising and donor relationship management software,” said David Blyer, CEO of Arreva.
Susan Packard Orr, chairman of Arreva adds “Arreva is dedicated to our clients’ success by helping them optimize their fundraising through best-in-class technology and fundraising best practices. With 360MatchPro, Arreva clients now have a powerful new tool to increase average donation size and volume without asking more from donors. The streamlined integrated donor experience helps nonprofit organizations run successful matching gift programs with much less effort and greater results.”
Donors giving through the Arreva online fundraising form, integrated with 360MatchPro, will be automatically screened for matching gift eligibility and their transaction and employer information will be recorded in the Arreva platform. 360MatchPro synthesizes all of the organization’s matching gift data and presents actionable insights that can be used to enhance their matching gift efforts.
The Arreva form builder makes it easy to prompt donors to get their donations matched.
“Lack of donor awareness is the number one reason for the $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue left on the table every year,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “We are delighted to be working with Arreva and their many clients. Our strategic partnership with Arreva and integration of 360MatchPro with their fundraising platform closes the donor awareness gap for organizations, allowing them to significantly increase their matching gift revenue using Arreva’s robust software.”
Learn more about Arreva at https://www.arreva.com/ or schedule a private demo of Arreva’s fully integrated online fundraising and donor relationship management software at https://go.arreva.com/schedule-demo/.
Learn more more about Double the Donation at https://doublethedonation.com/ or schedule a private demo of 360MatchPro at https://www.360matchpro.com/demo-request/.
8 Ways to Make Your Nonprofit Website More Accessible
/0 Comments/in Learning Center /by Adam WeingerThis post was contributed by Elevation and written by Lauren Uhl.
Today in the United States, all those with disabilities are entitled to equal access in public facilities. This means building ramps and elevators, accommodating bathrooms with handicapped stalls, sectioning off one/two parking spots in the front, and more. Think of the internet and your website this same way: you have to intentionally consider those with disabilities when creating and maintaining your website. Such actions should not be considered laborious favor: they are, in fact, legally required. Those who proactively consider accessibility measures on their website will allow all types of users to partake in their online experience, whilst avoiding potential lawsuits. Check out these 8 ways to make your website more accessible.
Download this information in a handy infographic here!
What is Website Accessibility?
Let’s backup a little bit: what is website accessibility all about? Similar to accessibility in the real world, website accessibility is designed to accommodate diverse users on the internet. This includes those with auditory, visual, neurological, physical, and speech special needs, as well as those with old age and slow internet. Nonprofit website designers must consider ways their color layouts, text content, and overall structure can reach these diverse populations.
Accompany color indicated text with additional indicating text/images
We use color indications in many places around the world: with stoplights, warning signs, and more. While it may feel natural to change content colors based on connotations (i.e. red means stop/important, green means good/safe…) those maintaining and designing websites should keep colorblind, visually impaired, and epileptic populations in mind. Of course, you can change the text color for meaning, but that should not be the only indication of meaning. This means (for example) marking important content in red AND accompanying it with additional text that reinforces the text’s importance.
Use appropriate contrast on text and images
It’s also important to color contrast on your website. According to Web Accessibility In Mind, texts and images should maintain a contrast ratio of 4:5. While larger text requires a contrast of at least 3:1, smaller text, images, and logotypes, in general, are exempt from such requirement. You can check your color contrast here for more information.
Use a minimum font size of 16
The bread and butter of your nonprofit website is (most likely) the text content. Therefore, it’s absolutely essential that the text is accessible.
The first and probably easiest fix is making all text a minimum size of 16. Of course, you can make the text bigger, but any smaller may result in a legal issue.
Add closed captions and/or transcripts for videos
Next, ensure that all videos have closed captions and a manuscript to accompany it. That way, those with hearing impairments/faulty computers can still access information shared in the video.
Use Alt-text on all images
Check that images have a descriptive blurb, or alt-text. While every content management system is slightly different, they all should have a way to add alt-text to your images.
Allow flexible navigation time-limits
While seamless navigation is already a strong priority for user experience, it also helps those in underdeveloped areas and those with faulty service access the website contents.
Website designers should allow users flexible time limits. Some websites force users to log back into the website after a given time period: such improves security, but it also can hurt those with slow internet. Be sure to add flexibility into time-sensitive areas in your website so you can maintain some level of security while also accommodating users with slower service. Whether you add warning messages on time limits or some other indicating method, this will improve both user experience and accessibility in developing areas.
Allow full website navigation via keyboard actions
The website should be completed navigable through keyboard actions. That way, users without a computer mouse can still be able to jump around the website. Elevation Web uses the wordpress plugin from userway.org.
Add concise text for error messages
Finally, when coding error messages, be sure to make them concise. Simply displaying an icon (i.e. red exclamation point) may mean “warning” to someone from western cultures, however, such may confuse other demographics. If you want to include some image/icon with a warning message, be sure to accompany it with a concise explanation for the error.
Software Help in Accessibility
To be safe, website maintenance staff should assess the website’s accessibility bimonthly or more. Below are some helpful resources for accessibility assessments:
This post was contributed by Lauren Uhl at Elevation.
Lauren Uhl is a copywriter at Elevation, a full-service nonprofit web design agency. Lauren earned her B.A. in English Literature, Secondary Education, and Philosophy from Gonzaga University and is currently studying for her M.Ed. at the University of Portland. Lauren believes writing can change the world: that’s why she teaches middle-schoolers Language Arts and History through a social justice lens. More than anything, she hopes that she can find the right words when people need it the most.
How to Encourage Matching Gifts Using Marketing Automation
/0 Comments/in Learning Center /by Adam WeingerNo matter the product, businesses equally strive to convert leads to valuable customers. In order to do so, they foster their potential customers throughout their journey from awareness to conversion. Marketers call this process a ‘conversion funnel’ and the best conversion funnels are made possible by email marketing platforms that offer the best marketing automation software solutions.
Yet another industry where the automation of conversion funnel work wonders as a marketing strategy is matching gifts.
When it comes to the non-profit world, every dollar matters. At such a scenario, ‘matching’ gifts turn every dollar into two. To put it simply, matching gifts are donations that a company give to the same non-profit their employee donated to.
‘Matching gifts’ is a great way to show support, and to make the world a better place. After all, all it takes for a company to donate is a request from their employees.
But still, the question remains as of how you will get your donors to ask for a matching gift from their company. Marketing Automation!
Conversion Funnel Basics
Let’s begin with understanding the conversion funnel. Typically, a conversion funnel is differentiated into four or five stages based on which a company uses marketing strategies to guide target audience from finding of the company to taking the desired action which can be buying their services or asking their company for a matching gift. Many businesses also incorporate post-sale activities into the conversion funnel to keep the customers coming back for more services.
As we go forward through the marketing funnel, each stage grows narrower than the previous because not every individual who hears about your offering will be interested, and not every interested individual will go on to ask their company for a matching gift.
Stages Of Marketing Automation Sales Funnel & Matching Gifts
Awareness
The first stage emphasis on activities that help you introduce your brand and your offer to your audiences. Segmentation is critical to this step because targeting the wrong audience can bring down your conversion rate alongside wasting time and blowing your marketing dollars away.
You can employ your website, newsletters, and leverage social media to position your brand. Nevertheless, make sure that you pique the interest of your contacts so that they take the desired action. Use proven templates and marketing automation software solutions as the layouts, copy, and graphics play a key role here in determining the success rate of this stage.
Matching Gift Pages
In order to reap the benefits of your donors’ matching gift program, you will have to invest in setting up an educational matching gifts page to your website. Through a matching gift page, you can provide your donors with the necessary background information about matching gifts, and the companies that will match employee gifts to nonprofits.
Include the following in your matching gift page:
The bottom line is that you keep your matching gift page a central hub of all the information that your audience requires and could refer to.
Newsletters
Another marketing strategy that you can adapt to spread awareness about matching gifts is to include them in your newsletters. Regularly incorporating information about matching gift in your newsletter can work wonders in bringing you increased matching gift request completions.
You don’t have to work a great deal on making your newsletter look extravagant. Rather, keep it simple with an effective headline, and explain what corporate matching gift programs are.
Remember to give a link that takes your audience to your dedicated matching gift page and include an engaging graphic there as it will make your donors feel compelled to know more about their eligibility.
Social Media
With so much importance being placed on social media these days, nonprofits have made their appearance there to promote matching gifts. Building your presence on social media gives your donors an option to interact with you through their preferred medium other than email.
Additionally, as your loyal donors share information about matching gifts online, there are chances that people from their network who come across their feeds become your new donors.
Consideration
Once you have gained leads from the first stage, it’s time you start cultivating an interest in order for them to move forward and buy your products and services. Use a marketing automation software solution to create attention-grabbing email campaigns such as email autoresponders and drip campaigns.
Email Campaigns
Though we did talk about leveraging social media, you shouldn’t shy away from using email campaigns because it is more effective than you actually think it is.
Your donors will be in the height of giving mood then they are in the donation process. They believe in your cause and want to support it no matter what. Grab this opportunity to send them a strategic automated confirmation or thank you email asking the donors to take a small extra step to take their donation further.
Try including matching gift plugin, or helpful images. Also, be clear about the instruction, and make it sound as simple and easy as it can be.
Action
This is the stage that you have been working for up till now, the time of conversion when a lead decides to take the desired action that you have been guiding them to. This is when your donor asks their company to make a matching gift. As the marketing funnel is now slimming down to its narrow end, you need to bring your sales team in to give that final push.
Your job here is to make taking the action process as simple as possible. Provide clear instructions, and use a marketing automation software tool to send ‘abandoned cart’ emails to try and get back your donors to complete the process. You can also do the following to maximize the results.
Retention
Immediately after your donor completes the desired action and converts, you should start living up to the expectations that you had set up. Make sure that they stay satisfied, and do all that is there in your limit to maintain the relationship.
Fundraising Reminders & Invitations
Event invitations and reminders make donors happy just the way candies make children happy. Invitations for fun fundraising events are always something that donors enjoy receiving.
Keep your invitations compelling. Use a great subject line, and give a review of the past highlights if possible. After the fundraising events, send updates to your donors’ inboxes and follow up with them.
Wrap Up
A perfectly defined sales funnel is a surefire way to increase conversions. Moreover, using automation improves financial metrics and presents your donors with a more satisfactory experience that won’t make them feel like they are being guided down a funnel.
This post was contributed by Luda Greko at ActiveTrail.
Luda Greko is the Head of Content Marketing at ActiveTrail, a leading provider of professional-grade email marketing and automation software for growing businesses. By day she writes for top online marketing sites about email marketing and marketing automation, and by night she is a lifestyle blogger and a social media enthusiast.
4 Reasons Why Your Nonprofit Should Emphasize Retention
/0 Comments/in Learning Center /by Adam WeingerWhen it comes to a nonprofit’s donor base, some may typically think that acquiring new donors should be the most important goal they have. The reasons for this make sense on the surface level: nonprofits want to obtain more donors in order to raise more money.
But it’s actually not that simple. While obtaining new donors is, of course, a goal that every nonprofit should have, it shouldn’t always be the emphasis. In fact, retaining donors can bring about much more profitable fundraising campaigns and success. If you’re looking for fundraising tips, especially about donor retention, you’ve come to the right place.
So, what are the reasons that donor retention should be emphasized? We’ll cover the following topics:
Focusing on donor retention can help your nonprofit reach its fundraising goals and fuel its mission. Without having this focus, your rate of return on outreach can actually be much lower.
Are you ready to take a closer look at the reasons you should focus on donor retention? Let’s get started!
1. Donor acquisition is more costly than retention.
Believe it or not, but it’s actually more difficult and costly to acquire new donors than it is to keep the ones you already have. Think about all the money you’ve put into outreach and prospect research, and what your return on investment ends up being after you’re finished. Now think about how that time could be better spent on cultivating the donors you already have relationships with.
For these reasons, focusing on donor retention can save your organization money and effort over time. Let’s look at this more closely:
As a result of the above, investing the same amount of money spent on new donors with existing donors instead can bring in a higher rate of return, as it will cost less to work toward retaining existing donors. Building on your connections with these donors will help build stronger relationships with them as well.
If you’re looking for the right CRM solution that can help you steward your existing donors, check out this list.
2. Higher retention rates lead to better fundraising totals.
It’s clear that retaining donors should be high on your nonprofit’s priority list. But it might not be as evident that higher retention rates can also lead to better fundraising.
How does this happen?
If you’re not sure where to start with building these donor relationships, you may consider hiring a fundraising consultant. Aly Sterling offers some great tips on hiring a consultant who can help you build stronger donor relationships and create strategies to raise more as a result.
3. Fundraisers will have access to the necessary data.
As we mentioned earlier, you already have your existing donors’ information in your nonprofit CRM. This is a great launching point to build relationships with your current donor pool. If you have their information in your CRM, your fundraisers will have access to what they need to raise even more.
For example, donor information can help your nonprofit:
On the topic of matching gifts, nonprofits can actually use these to improve their donor retention. From sending a matching gift appeal immediately after a donation is made, to letting donors know when the matching gift is made, all of this serves to improve your relationship with your donors and increase the chances of them supporting you in the future.
Having the necessary donor information at your nonprofit’s fingertips can help build your fundraising potential. Personalized outreach and having the right focus on the right people will ensure that you work toward achieving your mission.
4. You can build awareness and engagement around your nonprofit.
One of the most impactful reasons to emphasize donor retention is the awareness and engagement you can build around your nonprofit by doing so. Both awareness and engagement are important because they help spread the word about your nonprofit and its mission, and also give you a chance to listen to your constituents.
Here are some key ways you can build on awareness and engagement:
When you actively include your existing supporters in your plans to fundraise, listen to them, and give them a great experience, you’ll be able to bring more attention to your cause. This is especially effective during campaigns, when you can incorporate peer-to-peer fundraising, and in times when you need feedback or advice.
Your nonprofit should emphasize retention because the payout, in the end, can be much more valuable than if you focus that same energy on acquiring new donors. That’s not to say acquiring new donors isn’t important. It certainly is and should be a focus of your organization to some extent. However, having an even stronger focus on retention can bring in more donors as a result of word-of-mouth promotion and other methods.
By including your current donors in your nonprofit’s fundraising efforts and cultivating your relationships with them over time, this can lead to major gifts and even stronger ties between you and them. Redirect your time and energy to donor retention, and you’ll be on your way to fundraising even more!
This guest post was contributed by CharityEngine.
Author: Leigh Kessler – VP, Marketing & Communications
Leigh Kessler is VP of Marketing and Communications at donor management software platform CharityEngine and a frequent speaker on branding, fundraising, data and technology. He is a former nationally touring headline comedian and has appeared on numerous TV shows including VH1’s “Best Week Ever”, CNN’s “Showbiz Tonight”, Discovery Channel & Sirius Radio. He has overseen and informed research and branding strategies for some of the most well known brands in America.
Double the Donation is Salsa Labs’ Choice for Matching Gift Solution
/0 Comments/in Learning Center /by ShelbyGAtlanta, GA (June 19, 2019) — Double the Donation is thrilled to have been chosen as the matching gift software provider for Salsa Labs, a technology company that provides powerful fundraising, advocacy, and marketing engagement software to nonprofit organizations all over the world.
This integration will allow Salsa customers to activate matching gift functionality with the click of a button. 360MatchPro, Double the Donation’s most robust matching gift tool, is a fully-automated matching gifts platform.
Salsa Engage users are now able to include Double the Donation’s streamlined matching gift search tool as a field on their donation forms. As donors search for their company name in that field, their transaction record is updated in 360MatchPro.
Image: 360MatchPro element found in the Salsa Engage form builder.
“We are very excited to offer Salsa customers all of the incredible features included with 360MatchPro,” said Donna Myers, CEO of Salsa Labs. “It is our mission to ensure that every organization using Salsa Labs is raising as much money as possible. This integration is easy to activate and immediately starts optimizing an organization’s matching gift efforts.”
In addition to the search field included on Salsa Engage donation forms, 360MatchPro also provides fully-automated email marketing and follow-ups. Lack of donor awareness is the biggest hurdle to collecting matching gifts, which results in $4-7 billion in matching gift revenue left unclaimed every year. To rectify this, 360MatchPro triggers an email about matching gifts with every new donation.
Image: Email sent automatically from 360MatchPro.
“We have built these tools to help nonprofits increase matching gift revenue while simultaneously relieving the organization of the effort it takes to run a matching gift program,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “We are so excited to have the opportunity to work with Salsa’s many clients to do just that.”
If a donor identified their employer using the search field or donated using a corporate email address, they would automatically receive an email that includes their company-specific matching gift information and a link to request a match from their employer.
360MatchPro does everything from collecting employment information from donors, reaching out to those donors about matching gifts, and following up with the donor afterward to ensure that not a single matching donation falls through the cracks.
Image: Example of a Salsa Engage donation form using the 360MatchPro integration.
If a donor does not indicate their employer using the field on the donation form or a corporate email address, they are sent an email encouraging them to search for their employer’s matching gift guidelines. These emails also include a link to report that the matching gift request has been made to the organization.
Whether sent in an email or provided after using Double the Donation’s search tool, a donor’s company-specific matching gift information is always presented in a simple, easy-to-understand format.
360MatchPro synthesizes all of the organization’s matching gift data and presents actionable insights that can be used to enhance their matching gift efforts.
Learn more about Double the Donation at https://doublethedonation.com/ or schedule a private demo of 360MatchPro at https://www.360matchpro.com/demo-request/.
Find out more about Salsa Labs at https://www.salsalabs.com/.
Plan a Fundraiser that Engages Kids: 6 Top Tips for Schools
/0 Comments/in Fundraising Ideas /by Adam WeingerYour school undoubtedly enjoys supporting the programs and activities that your students love, and you should be able to continue to do so. But as an educator or member of the PTA, your time is limited. You have many tasks vying for your attention and it can be difficult to balance everything and still perform each task well.
School fundraising should not be another source of stress in your life. Fundraising for all of your kids and teens’ favorite programs can be fun and engaging for you, your students, and your community. However, to avoid becoming overwhelmed with stress as you organize the fundraiser, utilize an effective event fundraising software.
To cultivate a fundraiser that kids will want to participate in and promote, you should:
If you follow these 6 best tips for school fundraising, you will be blasting through your fundraising goals in no time—and getting your kids involved in the fundraising process. So, without further ado, let’s start learning how to create the best and most engaging fundraiser your school has ever seen!
1. Plan a fun event.
The best way to guarantee your students actually want to get involved in your fundraiser is to make it fun and simple. It is entirely possible that the goal of raising money is not enough to get the students to engage with the fundraiser.
Depending on the age of the kids, they may not quite grasp the importance of money in making sure the programs you provide can still be offered year after year.
To ensure the students value the fundraiser, try planning your fundraiser around a fun event. To get some inspiration for fundraising ideas, click here.
A Fun Run or Jog-a-thon is an excellent example of a fun and easy event that’s well-suited for school-aged children.
The concept of a Fun Run or Jog-a-thon is simple. The student should recruit friends, adults, and family to pledge money for each unit of distance that they run or donate a lump sum for the entire distance. This could look like:
An effective walk-a-thon allows for the kids to hang out with their friends and stay active while supporting their school.
2. Stay organized.
One of the hardest parts of organizing and promoting a large-scale school fundraiser is making sure all of your data stays organized. You may be unfamiliar with fundraising techniques and strategies—and that’s completely normal!
To stay organized and properly manage the information you gather from your Fun Run or Jog-a-thon you should employ a Fun Run/Jog-a-thon fundraising software, like 99Pledges.
The best software will track and manage the pledges made to your Fun Run or Jog-a-thon so that you don’t have to! Yes, you heard that correctly. You will never have to sit with a calculator adding up the money that each pledgor owes to your child’s fundraising page.
This technology will allow you to load each child’s information into the program and create a custom-made, individualized fundraising page for supporters to donate or pledge money to.
If you want to get kids and teens involved invested in your fundraising efforts, you need to have an organized system that can easily integrate students into its process.
3. Encourage personalization.
While you are all fundraising for the same end result, your fundraiser participants may have many reasons for becoming involved. Some people might participate because they are passionate about the cause or the program that your event benefits. Meanwhile, others may want to compete for incentives or simply participate in your fun event.
Whatever the reason for their participation, you should encourage students to personalize their fundraising page to entice more supporters.
With the right software tool, each student will be able to fundraise separately for a common goal. While some fields on their unique page may be consistent throughout all the supporters, such as the:
The students or their parents should still have the option to write a fundraising letter that offers an impassioned appeal for donations and pledges that will be more likely to draw in friends and family supporters.
This fundraising letter should:
It is not likely that friends and family members will donate or pledge money simply because it is a good cause. They want the emotional appeal—they want to donate and pledge money because it is something the student is passionate about.
Feel free to encourage your students to make this fundraiser their own. This will not only cause the students to become more invested in the outcome of the fundraiser, but it will also boost your fundraising revenue!
4. Allow healthy competition.
One of the benefits of your PTA hosting a participant-based fundraising event is that the work is divided up among a wide range of people. While we know it can be difficult to motivate such a wide group of kids, make sure you don’t underestimate the power of healthy competition.
Friendly competition among friends has the potential to greatly enhance your fundraising revenue and encourage students to work hard to gain supporters.
The students should be able to have some sort of visual that represents how much each student is fundraising. A good software tool will display top donations that can serve as motivation for students to seek out additional support for their pages.
If you choose to do a walk-a-thon, or any variation of the event-a-thon, it is easy for the students to see how hard their peers are working. The student may be more inclined to walk further or read more or hit more baseballs if they can see how well other participants are doing.
While good, old-fashioned competition is one of the best motivators in fundraising among kids and teens, you must remember to provide some incentives that will further encourage the students to put effort into the campaign.
5. Offer incentives.
If you want to modify your fundraising strategy to maximize the number of students who are meaningfully engaging with your fundraiser, you should offer incentives to participants. Kids and teens love free stuff and added perks— but then again, who doesn’t?
To make competition a sustainable motivator and to help students stay excited about your fundraiser, you must give them a light at the end of the tunnel. They need something to look forward to and something to latch onto as they fundraise.
Don’t worry. The incentives don’t need to be elaborate or expensive, just something that will appeal to the kids and teens participating in your fundraising event.
Potential incentives you may want to offer include:
Depending on the age of your students, they may respond better to different incentives. Make sure you offer incentives that you know your students will love and want to achieve.
An easy way to incentivize all of your students at once is to provide fundraising team t-shirts. These can be custom made based on class, grade, or school depending on the size of your fundraiser. The kids will love the free merch and be excited to wear it, which will, in turn, promote the fundraiser.
To see how you can increase excitement in your fundraiser with a tangible incentive, check out Bonfire’s custom school shirts.
6. Make it shareable.
The best tactic to include in your fundraising plan when hosting a school fundraiser that kids and teens will want to be a part of is to make it shareable on social media. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and so many more social media platforms have taken over how people communicate with one another and share news that is important to them.
Depending on the age of your students they may have their own social media accounts or, at the very least, it is likely their parents have accounts. Enabling students to share the fundraiser with remote friends and family members and to engage with the fundraiser on their own terms will make it more likely that the students actually want to participate.
You will be able to reach more people and encourage the students to promote their own fundraising page if the event-a-thon software that you use allows mobile sharing of personalized pages, your students and their parents are sure to want to spread the word about the school fundraiser.
Your school fundraiser should be easy and fun for everyone involved—student, teachers, parents, and supporters alike! With the right software, your walk-a-thon or other exciting fundraising events can engage your students and increase your fundraising revenue.
This post was contributed by Brad Dowhaniuk.
Brad Dowhaniuk is the co-founder of 99Pledges, which provides schools and teams with an easy-to-use, web-based fundraising solution to manage and drive success in Fun Runs, jog-a-thons, baseball hit-a-thons, and much more.
Double the Donation is Proud to Announce Matching Gift Integration with Funraise
/0 Comments/in Company Updates, Learning Center, News, Press Releases /by ShelbyGAtlanta, GA (April 22, 2019) — Double the Donation is proud to announce our latest integration with Funraise, a leading provider of innovative fundraising technology. 360MatchPro is debuting on the Funraise platform as the preferred matching gifts solution for Funraise customers.
360MatchPro is readily available for all of Funraise’s current and future customers to provide easy-to-use, fully-automated corporate matching gift capabilities. Once a Funraise customer has a 360MatchPro account, they are able to turn on the matching gift functionality directly within the Funraise platform, or they can create an account right then and there.
Funraise customers with an existing 360MatchPro account can enter their API Keys to activate the integration.
Funraise customers who would like to activate the integration can get started with 360MatchPro within the Funraise platform.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Double the Donation on behalf of Funraise’s customers,” said Justin Wheeler, Funraise CEO & Co-founder. “Their 360MatchPro product doesn’t just save our clients time and effort—this integration also increases donation revenue while ditching donor frustration during the donation process. It’s Funraise’s mission to do away with the nonprofit struggle using smart, nonprofit-led fundraising technology, which is why Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro is a perfect match with Funraise.”
By allowing users to embed Double the Donation’s advanced search tool across their website pages and giving forms, as well as encouraging the use of automated email marketing, 360MatchPro helps organizations to enlighten their donors about matching gift opportunities. The biggest hurdle to building matching gift revenue is the lack of awareness about these programs among donors.
“Funraise is such a great company to work with, and we are very happy to provide their customers with our advanced matching gift tools,” said Adam Weinger, President of Double the Donation. “With automated follow-up, these nonprofits are able to claim some of the $4-7 billion of matching gift revenue that goes unclaimed every year. We truly believe that, in addition to access to our thorough database of companies that offer matching gifts, automating the follow-up process revolutionizes existing matching gift programs.”
With 360MatchPro, nonprofit organizations are able to identify match-eligible donors, track the status of those donors’ match requests, and automate the follow-up emails that will drive these matches to completion. The platform also provides actionable insights to help nonprofits shape their matching gift programs moving forward.
360MatchPro’s innovative software is able to identify match-eligible donors through email capture, self-identification, and bulk uploads. From there, 360MatchPro drives these matches to completion using customized, automated email streams.
Every nonprofit organization and educational institution can benefit from corporate matching gift revenue. However, nonprofit organizations often don’t have the resources to incorporate matching gifts into their overall fundraising strategy, or they can’t afford to dedicate a full-time employee to a matching gift program. With 360MatchPro, the automated email streams handle all of the necessary follow-up to build an effective matching gift program with no manpower necessary.
Find out more about Funraise at https://funraise.org.
Find out more about Double the Donation at https://doublethedonation.com/ or schedule a private demo of 360MatchPro at https://www.360matchpro.com/demo-request/.
Finding the Best Camp Database Software: 6 Key Features
/0 Comments/in Uncategorized /by Adam WeingerSo many parts of your summer camp are made special by the people involved and the location of your camp. Your summer camp makes a difference in your community by creating magic for children in a variety of ways. But what about the magic created by not having to worry about the administrative tasks of running your camp?
We all know that managing a summer camp requires a ton of work. Before your campers arrive, you have to have registrations, waivers, medical documentation, housing requests, staffing decisions, and activities all collected and organized! That seems like a Herculean task for someone working alone, and still a massive undertaking for a group of people.
But what if there were a tool that could make running a camp easier, so that you can spend more time making magic and less time organizing paperwork? That tool is called camp database software, and it’s not a magic wand. It’s a software solution that allows you to offer registration, collect payments and paperwork, hire counselors, and more.
There are a lot of different options on the market, so we’ve made a list of our top 6 cannot-live-without summer camp database features that you should look for in your camp database software.
Those 6 features are:
Are you ready to learn more about these features and why they’re so important for running a safe and successful summer camp? Let’s dive in!
1. Online registration and payment options.
One of the key features that your camp database needs is the ability to register campers, accept important documents, and process payments online. When your campers can register from the convenience of their own home (with the help of their parents!) you’ll find that your registration process is much smoother than it would be with paper.
When your camp families are able to register online, you’ll find that your whole registration process becomes much simpler and easier for everyone involved. Doubly so if you accept online payments!
How does moving the process to digital make it easier?
Online registration and payment is the first feature that you should look for when choosing the right database software for your camp. Making your registration process easier will make all the following systems and processes flow that much more easily, as well.
For more specifics on what you need in camp registration software, check out this guide from CircuiTree.
2. Electronic healthcare portal.
When parents send their children to summer camp, they are entrusting your counselors and staffers with the responsibility of keeping their child safe. This responsibility doesn’t always mean protecting campers from lions, tigers, and bears; sometimes, it’s making sure a child takes their medication on time or keeping them away from an allergen.
To make this task easier for counselors and staffers, choose a camp database software that empowers healthcare professionals to:
When a child is registered, all of the relevant health information is stored in their camper profile. Your nurses or other medical professionals will be able to access all of that information, as well as print it out in order to give to emergency medical services or a hospital.
The health and wellbeing of your campers is of the utmost importance, so make sure that your camp database prioritizes it as much as you do and provides all the functionality that your healthcare team could need.
3. Integrated point-of-sale systems.
Nothing tops being able to pick out a super-cool camp t-shirt at the end of the week and buy it from the camp store to wear all year round. But in order to create the opportunity for this experience as well as keep track of the data generated by the purchase, you should search for a camp database that includes an integrated point-of-sale.
When your database includes your point-of-sale system, you can use your camp store for so much more than just processing payments. You can:
Having this data at your fingertips makes camp shopping that much easier for the parents of your campers, and store management that much easier for you. You’ll never run out of t-shirts, and you can make smarter inventory decisions based on the trends of the years before.
4. Marketing and communication tools.
In order to build a sustainable camp ecosystem, you have to be able to find new campers, as well as communicate with the existing ones. Existing camp families will want to be updated and reminded about goings-on at the camp, and your potential campers will appreciate the effort that you demonstrate in reaching out to them.
You should be able to reach out to camp families in a variety of ways, including:
Communicating with your community in the off-season is a great way to ensure that you’re at the front of their minds when they start to plan out their summers again. And to make sure that you’re reaching new families that want to send their child to camp, look for features like:
Marketing is an important part of your camp’s ongoing strategy for success, so when you choose a camp database with marketing tools you’ll find that you’re set up for the future. For more summer camp marketing strategies, check out this easy list from CircuiTree.
5. Campers’ choices for experiences.
You hopefully will be dealing with a lot of campers this summer. Your camp database software should act as a group management software, and therefore make it easier to manage groups!
One of the most important features that you can look for in your summer camp database is the option for your campers to note what they want in their registration. Your campers are the heart and soul of your summer camp community, so making sure that they have the best summer possible is of vital importance.
Two of the easiest ways to do this are allowing campers to self-schedule their activities, and encouraging housing requests.
Offering these options empowers your campers to focus on the areas that they want to excel in, and avoid the ones they have no interest in. Plus, getting to choose who you bunk with works as a marketing tactic. Campers who want to invite their friends are more likely to do so if they know that they’ll get to stay together and participate in the same activities!
6. Reporting and analytics tools.
Your summer might be over and your campers have all gone home, but the work isn’t done. It’s time to use all the data that’s been stored in your camp database to make decisions for the upcoming summer. When choosing the right camp database for your summer camp, make sure to seek out one that offers powerful reporting and analysis tools.
When you can visualize and share the data that you collect, your whole staff will be able to understand how your camp is doing and work together to make the next summer even better. With comprehensive reporting tools, you’ll be able to answer questions like:
All of these questions can help you make stronger marketing, hiring, and managing decisions for the following summer. For example, if you know that most of your campers come from Southern California, you can spend more effort marketing in that region. If your camp store is making a killing on t-shirts but losing money on baseball caps, consider ordering more t-shirts for sale and reducing your baseball cap offering.
Data-driven decisions are the key to ensuring continuing success, so make sure that your camp database empowers your staff to understand the data behind the summer and make those decisions.
Summer camp is a joyous place, but even these joyous places require paperwork and healthcare facilities. Make sure that your camp is prepared for anything by investing in the right summer camp database for your unique program. If you want to know more about essential camp database features, click here.
Author Bio
Before becoming a camp professional, Glen enjoyed many other pursuits. A native San Diegan, he worked through college as a 9-1-1 dispatcher. He has a passion for literature and the outdoors, and is a veteran of U.S. Coast Guard, so he naturally loves to get out on the water with his wife and two kids whenever possible. He loves hearing camp cheers outside his office window during the summer, while helping camps across the country overcome their unique challenges!